


Flower Shop Romance

by Yojimbra



Category: Naruto
Genre: Awkward Flirting, Awkwardness, Crushes, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Enemies to Lovers, F/M, Fluffy, No Action, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-13
Updated: 2017-11-08
Packaged: 2019-01-16 16:53:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 12,380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12346740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yojimbra/pseuds/Yojimbra
Summary: Naruto gets a Part-time job at the Yamanaka Flower shop much to Ino's annoyance, yet will working with her fellow loud mouth blond open up new roads of life for her?





	1. Yellow Daffodils

The Yamanaka flower shop had four kinds of customers, the Ninja here for the rare poisons her father didn’t let her anywhere near, the gardeners that knew exactly what they were here for, the husband here to pick up their weekly tribute for their wives. And then there was Ino’s favorite customer, the lost boy looking for a flower to impress the girl he liked. 

It was always so romantic seeing those boys go out of their way to impress the girl they liked. Ino sighed wistfully into the bouquet of yellow daffodils she had been preparing for a local businessman that was a few days late for his anniversary. “I wish Sasuke would bring me flowers someday, I bet he wouldn’t forget our anniversary.” 

Not that they had an anniversary, he had gone so far as to turn her down every time she asked him out. Not that she was alone in that endeavor, he had turned down every girl that had confessed their feelings to him. Time and time again. 

“Still there’s no way that I’m going to lose,” Ino snarled, she snipped furiously at the stem of one of the flowers until it was the perfect length. The Yellow Daffodil was supposed to represent new beginnings and future success. If only she could give Sakura the flower then maybe the could stop fighting all the time. “Ha, like she’d even accept it probably think I was coming onto her or something.” 

“Talking to yourself again dear?” Her mother strode gracefully out from the back office, looking as regal as ever. Tsubaki Yamanaka was a tall elegant woman that made it a point to always look like perfection. 

“I’m talking to the flowers!” Ino smiled, twirling around to hand the final flower to Tsubaki. 

With practiced grace, her mother placed the flower in the perfect spot to finish off the arrangement. She walked around the counter dragging her meticulous nails along the wood. “Yes, the Yamanaka secret ingredient, between you and your father these flowers may know every secret in Konoha.” 

“I finished the orders, can I go for the day?” Ino placed both hands on the counter holding herself up off the floor.

“Hmm,” Her mother pursed her lips smiling in a way that told Ino all she needed to know. The answer was going to be no. “Your chores aren’t done, and I need your help with something today.” 

“Oh,” Ino deflated resting her upper body on the countertop, trying to take up as much space as possible on it. “So I only have to do absolutely, everything, forever. I mean I even cleaned up the paint from that jerk’s prank and redid the flower beds he ruined, I should at least get half a day off!” 

“Oh the hardships of a twelve-year-old girl,” Her mother adjusted another bouquet, with a minor change the entire shop somehow changed. “Well, you won’t have to suffer alone, we’ll be taking on some part-time help today, and it will be your job to show them the ropes while I go shopping.” 

“Does dad know?” 

“Yes, it was actually his idea in the first place, you always complain about being overworked during the spring,” Tsubaki said. 

“I meant about the shopping,” Ino shot back, propping her head up. 

The door chime echoed throughout the store. 

“Hello!” Ino greeted, bouncing off the countertop and onto her feet, she put on her best customer service smile. “What can I… oh it’s you.” Her smile vanished, and she folded her arms across her chest.

It was Naruto Uzumaki, a troublemaker in her class and the only person in her class with a mouth bigger than hers - and the stupid dumb jerk face that decided to paint bomb their store over the weekend. He looked ready to cry or pout and like he didn’t want to be here any more than she wanted him to be here. “The Old Man said I had to come here and help you guys out.”

Her mother glided across the store floor to circle around Naruto, once, twice. “Ahh excellent timing Naruto, we were just talking about you.” 

Wait they were? They were just talking about a part-timer, and shopping, and… wait, wait, wait. “Are you telling me that loser is the extra help! He’s the one that took my weekend away from me!” 

Naruto crossed his arms and pouted. “It’s not like I want to be here!” 

“Now, now,” Tsubaki stood behind Naruto and placed her hands on his shoulders. “I talked to the Hokage and Iruka-sensei after that incident and we all believed that understanding the hard work people put into their stores would do Naruto some good, so please, do your best to teach him Ino, I’m leaving it in your capable hands!” 

Before either of them could say anything Tsubaki vanished out the door, moving incredibly fast for a woman in a dress and heels. 

Ino glared at him, this was just great, now she was going to have to spend all day with Naruto! She had more than enough of him being an idiot in class. Now he was going to be messing up her store too? Just freak’n great. “Fine, come with me.” 

“The first stop on the Grand Tour of the Illustrious Yamanaka Flower Shop is the outdoor gardens!” Ino pushed past the bead curtain with her arms out wide, spinning as she did. Vines grew along guides to make an elegant forest canopy with wide square holes, the walls were covered with a variety of seeds, and gardening tools, some for sale others for the store and a variety of plants were grown on tiered shelves so that the yellow walls were all but hidden. The main attraction was the eight large flower beds all in various stages of growth, save for two in the middle that were barren and were stained with orange paint. 

“This is where we grow what’s in season, and where you’ll be spending the rest of your day.” Reaching into the supply closet Ino pulled out a watering pail and a spare apron with purple flowers on it. She tossed them both at Naruto, hitting him in the face with the apron. “You know how to water plants right?” 

“Yea!” Naruto growled ripping the apron from his face. He put it on over his orange jacket without fastening it around the waist. “You fill this with water,” he flailed the pail around. “And then pour water on the flowers.” 

“Pfft,” Ino snorted, placing both hands on her hips. “You have no idea, how to water plants do you?” 

“Do to!” Naruto growled stomping over to the spigot, he filled it up just enough to get something drenched. His face was turning redder by the second until he looked like a blond tomato. “Just you watch.” He stomped over to the strawberries and proceeded to give them too much water, the plant would survive but it wasn’t healthy for them. “See?”

“Oooh,” Ino clapped as sarcastically as she could possibly manage. “Congratulations Naruto, you over watered the Strawberries.” 

Silence lingered between them as Naruto processed the information, his face maintaining the lovely tomato coloring. He looked at the pot, then at her, then back at the pot. “How do you know?”

“Cause I water those strawberries every day,” Ino pointed at the pot. “You see there? You filled the pot up to the brim, strawberries need a lot of water, but that’ll drown them if you did that every day, you also shouldn’t aim at the leaves, strawberries like to have their roots watered, so just pour into the soil, as for how much.” She shuffled over to the next strawberry plant, specifically at the little line just above the soil. “I put that line there to remind me how much water to put in each pot. Better than looking it up in the book.” 

“Oh.” A look of understanding graced Naruto’s face as he looked at one pot after another trying to find the little line. “What about this one? It doesn’t have a line!”

“For those just get the ground wet,” Ino smiled, maybe having someone to do all the dirty work wouldn’t be such a bad idea, she could keep Naruto locked up in here while she handled the storefront. “And after you water all the pots, we’ll talk about the plant beds.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> p.a.t.r.e.o.n. (dot) com (slash) Yojimbra is the direct link because I'm not listed on the site for some reason.


	2. White Lilacs

Ino hummed as she crafted a small wreath made of White Lilacs - a pure white flower that represents purity and youthful innocence - for a flower girl, just one of a dozen other arrangements that were part of their wedding catering bundle. 

As romantic as weddings were, they were a lot of work; Every table needed a bouquet, every bridesmaid a corsage, a boutonniere for the groomsmen, and of course the bride's bouquet needed to be the absolutely most perfect thing ever. It would be so much easier if people could just have nice quite weddings with friends and family, but no sometimes half of Konoha was invited. 

“Well it’s not like mine and Sasuke’s wedding would be small.” Quite the contrary, hers and Sasuke’s wedding would be the biggest and best wedding Konoha had ever seen. She would be wearing an absolutely killer dress that would leave every male in Konoha wishing that they were Sasuke. And she would be the envy of every single female in Konoha for snagging the best man in Konoha leaving them with the dregs like Shikamaru or Naruto, and for looking better than they ever could. 

Sakura would be her maid of honor, only so that she could rub it into the little traitor's nose. Ami wouldn’t be invited, the rest of her friends would be there, and Sasuke would probably have Shikamaru or Choji as his best man, and the Hokage would be the officiant, wait. By that time might even be the Hokage. 

A gasp turned into a giggle at the thought. Her marrying the Hokage! She could be the great woman behind the great man. Rumors would spread far and wide about how she was the real power in Konoha. The best part is that she’d never have to work another day at her parent's shop! She’d probably be Konoha’s spymaster or something awesome like that, or she could simply be the Hokage’s wife. 

Both were good. With Sasuke as her husband, she’d be happy doing anything. He was smart, cool, good-looking, an excellent ninja, there was nothing about him she didn’t like. And if it wasn’t for Sakura scaring him off he’d be her boyfriend right now. 

“Hey, Ino!” The second most annoying person in her class and recent co-worker Naruto Uzumaki snapped his fingers in front of her face, his apron was still untied and hung off to the side, already his ugly orange jacket had dirt on it that could have been avoided if he put the thing on right. 

Swatting him away like the fly he was, she carefully placed the delicate headpiece down, as well as her daydreams. Naruto was a coward, all she had to do was glare at him or threaten to hit him and he would hide in the corner. “What do you want?” 

Naruto winced at her balled fist and took step towards the nearest exit. “I finished the water the pots.” 

Oh, that. Maybe, just maybe having Naruto around to do the dirty work wouldn’t be such a bad thing. Keeping her scowl Ino walked towards the outdoor garden, “So you watered all the pots to the line?”

“Yea,” Naruto folded his arms pouting like five-year-old. “I did it how you told me to.” 

“Good, now for the flower beds.” Ino led him to the hose area where a contraption that her father seemed to rearrange every season. “This is my daddy’s flow control system, it makes sure that all the plants in the flower beds get the water they need, each one has its own switch, pressure regulator, filter, and nutrient feeder. The water passes through these pipes which leads to the drip tape and sprinklers that water the plants.” 

She took a breath and looked up to see Naruto looking incredibly confused. With a deep sigh that caused her shoulders to slack, she stood back up and pointed towards the main valve. “All you have to do is turn it on.” 

“Oh! You could have just said that!” Without any hesitation Naruto reached down and turned the valve on full blast, the contraption hissed as the pressure regulators did there job and allowed the right amount of water to be sent through the hoses. “That was easy, can I go home now?” 

“Pfft, if I don’t get to go home you don’t get to go home.” She had a million better things to do than hanging out with Naruto all day at work. Once she became a ninja she was going to kiss this place goodbye! And hopefully Naruto as well. 

Once she ended up on a team with Sasuke everything would be set right. 

Naruto continued to pout. 

“Alright, next we need to fill the flower beds that you ruined with dirt and plant some seeds.” Ino led him to a large shed, where bags of fertilizer were stacked high on the walls, a variety of pots and seeds as well as the larger tools were stored. 

“I ruined them? It was just paint,” Naruto stopped pouting for a moment and almost looked legitimately sorry. 

“Yea, but flowers are sensitive, if you cover them in paint they’re going to die, either because the paints to heavy or because they can’t get in any sunlight, that and paint is toxic, we had to throw away all the dirt to.” She left out the part where it cost her the entire weekend to clean up the mess. “Now,” She pointed towards the bags of fertilizer. “It takes two of those to fill a flower bed so bring four of them to the flower beds.” 

With that Ino spun on her heel and walked out of the shed. 

“Hey wait, you aren’t going to help me carry these?” Naruto whined after. 

“What kind of man lets a woman do all the heavy lifting?” 

XXXX

Ino was rude, bossy, annoying, loud, kind of scary, and she wasn’t anywhere cute enough to make up for it. Worse still was that she was one of Sasuke’s fangirls and Sakura’s rival in love. Ino could have Sasuke for all he cared, but just being around Ino might make Sakura mad at him. 

It didn’t help that she was treating him like a slave. Sure the Hokage told him to help out their shop, but he said he was sorry! How was he supposed to know that paint killed flowers! It was the flowers fault for being so weak. 

He could tell when she was thinking about Sasuke, it was the same stupid look the rest of the girls in his class got. They sighed, smiled and spaced out. She was doing it right now, while he evened out the dirt in the flower beds. 

“Hey, Ino!” She got out of her daydream and glared at him. “The dirts even, do we start planting now?” 

So far gardening was nothing but playing in the dirt and water. It sucked he felt like a baby playing in the sandbox. Only it wasn’t sand and it was just dirt and not fun at all.” 

“Oh, not yet.” Ino rose from her seat, looking relatively clean compared to him, He was going to have to laundry soon if this kept up. She walked over another table and flipped open a large binder of sorts. “First we have to decide what to plant by looking up what’s in season, what will be in season and what compliments what.”

It sounded like a lot of reading. “Can’t we just plant all the same thing?”

“We could,” Ino’s mom walked in through the curtain smiling sweetly, a bag filled with food was slung around her shoulder. “But the point is to demonstrate what we have to offer so that customers will want to buy something.” 

“Mom, your home!” Ino smiled and jumped into her mother’s arms, hugging her tightly even as she rummaged through the grocery bag.

“Yep, I see you two have been busy,” Tsubaki petted Ino on the back of her head, “You got the Flower beds ready for tomorrow, I’ll be sure to make a list of what I want in them for you tomorrow.”

Great more work. 

“In the meantime, we’re closed so your both free to go!” 

“Finally!” Naruto ripped off the apron and flung it to the ground. He was so glad to be out of this place. Even if he had to come back again tomorrow. He had better things to do, like… like… not working at a stupid garden shop!

“Oh Naruto, one moment.” Tsubaki smiled at him, reaching around Ino to pull out a wallet from the bag. “Ino gets paid every two weeks, so until we get you on that time loop I’ll be paying you every day.”

She handed him money. More than enough money for ramen tonight, and tomorrow maybe even enough for the day after that! “Wait, I get paid for this?”

“Of course, it is a job after all.”

Maybe working here wasn’t going to be completely horrible!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Support me on Patreaon, or not. Up to you. If it was up to me I wouldn't be begging. p.a.t.r.e.o.n. (dot) com (slash) Yojimbra is the direct link because I'm not listed on the site for some reason.


	3. Sweet Alyssum

It was only Tuesday and Ino was ready to be done with the week. School and work were just so exhausting. The moment she stood behind the counter, dressed as the picture perfect Yamanaka flower shop employee Ino let out a primordial groan and flopped her head down onto the counter. 

“What are you doing?” Naruto, who was at least half of the reason why her day was turning out to suck so much egg asked, he was struggling to tie the apron behind his back looking like the kind of employee that showed up just because of the paycheck and not like they enjoyed the work. 

His hair was a mess, his shirt was half tucked in, his fingernails looked like he had been playing in the dirt all day. However, despite his unkempt appearance. Naruto was actually smiling. 

Her foul mood was all his fault, Naruto had talked to her at school - like they were friends or something - which wasn’t that big of a deal, she wasn’t that shallow. But it was Sakura that made it a thousand times worse. Naruto had asked what they were doing after school. 

And now Sakura was spreading rumors that they were a couple. Worse of all was that when she asked Sasuke if he knew she wasn’t really seeing Naruto, he just grunted! Because of Sakura Sasuke had fallen into despair and given up on her! All the progress she had made in getting through to Sasuke was in jeopardy. 

It didn’t help that Naruto followed her after class like he was a lost puppy. Only not cute at all, and twice as stinky and stupid. 

“I’m suffering,” Ino moaned glaring at Naruto with her one eye. “And it’s all your fault!” 

“What did I do?” Naruto pouted crossing his arms in protest. 

“Because of you,” Ino got up and walked over to poke Naruto hard in the chest. “The entire class thinks that we’re friends! Or worse dating! And Sasuke was so depressed that he didn’t even speak for the whole class! And just when I thought I was getting through to him!” 

Naruto snorted. “Sasuke, Sasuke, Sasuke that’s all you girls talk about! What’s so great about him? He’s just an asshole.”

“He’s not an asshole! He’s cool, handsome, strong, an excellent ninja, basically, he’s everything you’re not!” Ino took a step forward, growling as Naruto stood his ground. 

“And how’s that my fault! All I did was want to know what want to know what we were doing today!” 

“Alright you two,” Tsubaki strode in from the back room, as elegant and poised as a snow-covered mountain, while her face was a storm of rage. She grabbed both Ino and Naruto by the back of their shirts and held them away from each other. “There will be no fighting while you are in my shop do you understand?” 

“Yes ma’am,” Naruto deflated his arms going limp and looking actually regretful like he was an obedient puppy that had just been caught doing something wrong. 

“But mom!” Ino protested as she continued to struggle against her mother’s grip. 

“No buts Ino, Now you watch the storefront and Naruto will help me with the flower bed, honestly you two, this place is a flower shop what would people think if they came in and saw you two fighting like that?” Tsubaki set them down sliding her hands to their shoulders. “This shop is supposed to make people think of a peaceful garden, so act like it.”

Ino growled at Naruto for one last moment, before she huffed and walked towards the counter. “Whatever mom.” 

XXXX

Ino’s mom was… weird, and honestly Naruto didn’t know what to think about her. She was nice, and quiet but was really scary without being loud, and that made her a lot more scary than somebody like Iruka-sensei, who was just loud. 

She might even be scarier than the Hokage! 

“Alright Naruto, you did an excellent job making sure that most of the soil got into the flower beds.” Her face was an unreadable mask, as she pointed towards the bit of filth that was probably left over from yesterday. She continued to point at it, one eyebrow slowly raising as she looked right at him. 

“Oh!” Naruto picked up as much of the dirt as he could with his hand and dumped it back into the flower bed. “There!” 

She let out a sigh, “I meant for you to get a broom, but we can work on your clean up skills after we get dirty.” 

What was the point? They were just going to get dirty again later; his pants still had some of the dirt on them from yesterday! A look from Ino’s mom told him that he really shouldn’t say that out loud. She was weirdly clean. 

“So, the first thing we’re going to do is set up the drip system,” She gestured to a bunch of tubes and plastic bits that sat on the nearby table. “It’s going to be fairly easy this time because most of what we’re planting. First, we need to connect it to the spicket.” 

Great, she was going to just tell him what to do while she watched over him to make sure he didn’t make any mistakes. “Okay, how do I do that?” 

“I’ll show you,” Ino’s mom grabbed a set of the plastic doohickies, and walked over to one of the two empty flower beds. With easy, she attached the doohickies to a tube that stuck out of the ground. “See, just like that, now hand me the drip tape, it looks like a flat black hose with blue lines on it.” 

“Okay,” It was easy to find what she was asking for there were two sets of three rolls arranged neatly on the table. He handed it to her. 

“Thank you, Naruto.” She smiled at him. And thanked him for handing her something so simple? “Now, pay attention, We want to make sure that the blue lines face up so that the water comes out at the right place.” 

Soon enough, there was one line set up in the box and Naruto had somehow managed to pay attention throughout the whole ordeal. Ino’s mom was amazing at this! “What next?” 

She stood up, her hands despite touching the wet dirt just moments ago were clean and dry like the dirt was afraid of her. Naruto could sympathize with the dirt. “Now, you do it, just how I showed you.”

“Okay.” Naruto examined the pieces, trying to pick out the pieces Ino’s mom had first grabbed. “These ones right?” 

“Very good Naruto.” This was starting to freak him out, why was she being so nice to him? And she was going to give him money after this? Something was wrong. 

“You’ll have to forgive my daughter,” She stood over him, watching his every movement just waiting for him to make a mistake. “She can be a bit of a hot head sometimes, something that you know all about I take it?” 

“I’m not a hothead, other people just get annoyed too easily.” Naruto laid the drip hose thing down, wait, the blue stripes go on top! “It’s not my fault.” 

“Are you sure about that?” Her feet clicked as she walked around the flower bed a soft smile on her face as she watched his progress. Then, she turned and grabbed another set of the doohickies and tape. She crouched down beside him and began to work on the final line. “You can be a bit brash Naruto, just look at your current situation.” 

Naruto just lets out a groan as he kept looking at her hands to make sure everything was going correctly on his end. “I don’t mean to annoy people.”

“And I believe you, Now then, let’s start planting.” Ino’s mom produced a packet of seeds from out of nowhere. “These are Sweet Alyssum seeds, they’re going to be the base of our flower bed, so we plant these around the edge and in the center. I was going to go with a different flower, but these flowers are said to prevent heated encounters, maybe if we plant enough of them it’ll stop you and Ino from fighting?” 

She showed him how to bury the seeds, in small clusters six inches apart, about a quarter inch down, and then they went onto larger plants that would grow alongside the flower and what grew alongside them until the entire flower bed looked like a brown sponge with lots of holes and markers for the seeds. 

By the time they finished the second Flower box, it was closing time. 

“Now Naruto, I have a bit of homework for you.” Ino’s mom held out his pay for the day, (It was more than yesterday!). 

“Naruto never does his homework.” Ino snorted from behind the counter, a smug look on her face. 

“Ino,” Her mother warned, with practice grace she handed Naruto a pot and a packet of seeds. “This is a dwarf sunflower I want you to grow it at your home, once it’s fully grown I’ll consider your punishment over, and you can stop working for us.” 

The pot was heavy with dirt and the packet of seeds crinkled in his fingers.

“Mrs. Yamanaka,” Naruto began, but he had no idea what he was going to Say, or even do. He could do this though he could grow a sunflower! Then he’d be able to prank people again!

“Please, dear call me Tsubaki, Mrs. Yamanaka makes me feel old.” Tsubaki smiled at him like the Old Man or the Ramen chef did. 

Naruto swallowed and bit his lip before he found the words he was looking for. 

“Thank you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yojimbra.tumblr.com For random art and updates!
> 
> Patreon.com/yojimbra if you love me.


	4. Yellow Acacia

“Thanks for shopping with us, I hope our flowers bring you happiness!” Ino smiled as she handed a bouquet to a nervous boy who looked ready to run home at any second. It was incredibly cute, he was probably going to go ask out the girl of his dreams! Or perhaps was in trouble for forgetting an anniversary? 

“You’re welcome!” The young man stammered pushing up his glasses. “I mean that is. Thank you!” Then he was gone. 

Leaving her and Naruto alone in the store. Her father had yet to return from his mission, and her mother had some business to take care of that would likely take up the whole day. It wasn’t the first time that Ino would run the shop, and it wouldn’t be the last time either. But it was the first time that she had an underling to do her bidding.

That is coworker to delegate tasks too. 

“The plants don’t need any extra water in the morning right?” Naruto came in from the outdoor garden with a smile on his face. His Yamanaka Apron still untied at the waist and dirt clung to his pants and some on his nose as well. As to why her mother allowed him to maintain that appearance confused her beyond belief. 

“Honestly Naruto, can’t you present yourself better?” Ino closed the ground between them in three long steps, even as Naruto took a step back and from her. With a hand on his shoulder, she spun Naruto so that his back was facing her. A quick knot later and Naruto finally had his apron tied. “There, and to answer your question they do not.”

“Oh, hey thanks, Ino!” Naruto spun around like a dog chasing his tail trying to look at the knot. “So that’s what those were for.”

Did he really not gather that from her? 

Ino just let out a long sigh and turned back to the storefront, today had slow day written all over it. A slow day in the flower shop with Naruto. There was only so many chores and tasks she could get him to do until she was just making stuff up for him. “So, Naruto, why do you like Sakura?” 

“What? How do you know that I like her?” Oh, he was blushing now. She had never quite seen Naruto turned that shade of red. Normally he just blushed when he was mad at being called and proved that he was an idiot. 

“Because you ask her out like every day, always offer to sit by her, you’re more obvious than me and Sasuke.” Still, at least Sakura had some boy that was willing to ask her out. The rest of the boys in her class were too concerned with other things to even bother with the idea of dating, 

Or maybe they just knew better than to try and go after one of Sasuke’s fangirls. A lesson Naruto clearly hadn’t learned. It wasn’t like she wanted to date any of the boys in her class anyways. Kiba was too smelly, and obsessed with dogs. Choji was too fat, Shikamaru was too lazy. And then there was Naruto who had no redeemable features whatsoever. No, she’d wait for Sasuke.

But Sakura could settle for Naruto. 

“Well?” Ino prompted again, Naruto was trying his best to ignore her by poking at a rose flower. 

“Well, what?” 

This was how her mother felt, wasn’t it? Ino sighed and leaned against the countertop. “Like, why do you like Sakura so much?” 

“Oh,” Naruto sighed, this bashful sighed was almost kind of cute. Like a hairless kitten is kind of cute or how an old couple holding hands is kind of cute. “Well, she’s just really pretty, and smart, and I just kind of like her okay?” 

She could respect that. But then again, this was actually kind of fun. “Okay, why do you think she’s pretty?” 

“I don’t know? I guess it's her face, and she her green eyes and her pink hair especially how long it is. For some reason whenever I see her my face gets all hot and stuff.” Naruto mumbled, he accidentally plucked the petal of an orchid. 

“Oh, so you like long hair do you,” Ino smiled flipping her ponytail with a dramatic flair. “What do you think about me? Am I cute too?” 

Naruto’s face scrunched up in revolt like he had just smelled something horrible. “No.”

“Hmph, what do you know,” Ino rested her elbow on the countertop and huffed. “But if you want to get Sakura to like you, just complement her forehead.”

“Her forehead?” 

“Yea, you know that giant billboard that she could use for advertisement just below the pink hair you like so much. She used to be teased about it when we were kids, so if you say you like it might make her like you. Or make her hate you but she already hates you, so you got nothing to lose!” The part of her that still wanted Sakura as a friend was torn, between giving away Sakura’s secrets. And the hope that if Naruto managed to get Sakura to like him more than Sasuke - no matter how doubtful that was - then they could become friends again. Plus it would mean less competition for Sasuke. 

In theory, there was nothing wrong with Naruto, he was just loud, but so was Sakura, he was stupid, and Sakura was smart so the opposites attract thing would work there. Plus Naruto actually liked-liked Sakura and she certainly wasn’t getting anywhere with Sasuke. 

“Just make sure you shower and wear clean clothes when you tell her about it. Oh and I’m sure she’d love a flower. She likes cherry blossoms.” 

Naruto narrowed his eyes at her. “Why are you helping me get Sakura to like me?” 

Because at the very least it would be fun to watch him crash and burn. “Boredom mostly, and if you by some miracle get Sakura to date you then that’s less competition for me.” 

“Well, where should I take Sakura then?” 

“You don’t, at least not at first. Just tell her something mushy about her forehead, and give her the flowers then leave. It’ll give her time to think. And believe me, Forehead will be thinking about it.” Sakura would probably stay up late pulling her hair out and growling in frustration over such a simple gesture. 

If this works she should get a job as a matchmaker. 

“Huh?” Again with the confused puppy dog look, head tilt and all. “But how will I get her to date me?” 

“The point is to get her to want to date you. Sakura’s not afraid of asking boys out that she likes. Can you imagine it Naruto? Sakura asking you out? Blushing and stuttering and acting nervous because she likes you so much?” It probably wouldn’t ever happen, but weirder things had happened. Like…. Well… actually, that might be on the top of the list of weird things to happen in Konoha. 

Naruto adopted a happy dopey smile, a clear sign of a melted heart. “Sakura, asking me out? Sakura, me out?” 

Damn, did Naruto sleep in a bed filled with Sakura love bugs? What on earth did that stupid forehead do to get her own fanboy? “You can do that after work, but first go wash the windows.” 

“Yes Ma’am.” Naruto mocked saluted and ran outside to wash the windows without spray bottle or rag. He walked back in hanging his head in shame. 

With a scrutinous glare, Ino observed Naruto as he cleaned the window. When he actually wanted to do something or was rewarded for something he didn’t want to do he was a hard worker and actually not annoying. He hadn’t even tried to pull a prank in class since he started working here. But that could just be him not having enough time to think of a prank. But it felt like there was something more to it. Like Naruto actually enjoyed working here. There were worse jobs for sure. But that didn’t mean it was a job to happy about. Well her parents were happy with it. But it was their store. 

No Naruto seemed both happy and calmer. 

As Naruto began to was the glass right behind the display beds on the front of the store, a devilish idea popped into her head. Humming a soft tune to herself Ino walked over to the control for the outdoor sprinklers. And turned them on full blast. With Naruto standing under them. 

The sun made the water shine as it misted down onto Naruto, causing his blond hair to sag, and his black shirt to cling to his body. For a few moments, Naruto actually looked like an attractive human. Like he was actually cute, not as cute as Sasuke would have, but cuter than any other boy in the class. 

Once he was slightly damp Ino turned off the water and smiled at Naruto as he glared at her from the other side of the window. 

Maybe her mother was right, and all Naruto needed was a bit of kindness to bloom. He certainly could be turned into a decent boyfriend. For Sakura not for her. Sasuke was the only man for Ino. and no amount of cute wet Naruto would ever change that. 

XXXX

Ino hummed to herself as she began the closing procedures. All in all, today wasn’t that bad, they were just busy enough to not be completely mind-numbingly bored, yet slow enough that they weren’t going to get grey hair by the age of twenty. 

“Hey Ino,” Naruto mumbled, shifting on his feet ever so slightly, he had one hand behind his back, and a cherry blossom branch he was all set to give Sakura when he next saw her was in the other. “I just wanted to say thank you for the idea and that I’m actually sorry for what happened at the academy.” 

“Oh,” Right that whole thing. “Don’t worry about it Naruto I might have overreacted a bit.” Her own mother had said as much. 

“Well, anyways, I got you this.” He pushed a small handful of Yellow Acacia into her face, nearly forcing her back a few feet. “I read that these represent a valued friendship or something like that and I’d like to be your friend if that’s okay that is.” 

Ino stared at the flowers for a few moments. A boy - Yes, a male of the human species - had given her, flowers. It wasn’t Sasuke giving her flowers. But it was still a boy. Beyond that, it wasn’t just any flowers. Of all the flowers Naruto had given her they were Yellow Acacia, while not her favorite flower, they were at one of her favorites. 

She had daydreamed Sasuke giving her these flowers hundreds of times, because of their other meaning. Sure the friendship thing was sweet and endearing, but the flower had a secondary meaning. Secret love. 

Did Naruto know that? And that’s why he gave them to her? No, that wasn’t it. This was Naruto! He probably only read the friendship part, or the book he read didn’t even have the secret love part listed.

“Wait, you read about flowers?” Ino asked, still taking the flowers from Naruto, she had touched them a hundred times, she had probably planted these ones. But they felt so different. They were heavier, warmer, somehow more than just flowers. She had always known that - actually - receiving flowers would be different and special. 

She didn’t know that Naruto of all people would be the first boy to give her some. Why could she hear her heartbeat? Why did her cheeks feel warm? Why Naruto? 

“Yea,” Naruto scratched the back of his like he always did. Except it looked different this time. “Your Mom gave me a book on flowers and their meanings. She said she wanted me to start helping customers soon.”

If her mother gave him a book then it should have had the other meaning of Acacia in there. Naruto must not have read very much of it. That sounded about right. So it was just dumb luck. He liked Sakura after all. 

“Well thank you, and sure, I guess we can be friends, and I guess it's okay if you talk to me at the academy.“ He smiled, and it could almost be considered charming? No this was Naruto she was talking about. He didn’t have a charming bone in his body.

“Thanks, Ino.”

“But you still have to pay for those.”


	5. Blue Salvia

“This is all your fault,” Naruto grumbled as he came walking into the flower shop. He looked perfectly fine and healthy, no limp in his step, just a nice shiner on his left eye that was already beginning to puff up. 

Ino propped her head on her hand, resting on the counter. It was hard to feel bad for Naruto when most of his wounds were self-inflicted in some form or another, in this case, it was his fault for going after dangerous game. “Oh, and care to explain how your black eye is my fault?” 

He stomped past her, only offering her a half glare as he began to put on proper work attire. “Sakura punched me. In the face. Hard,” he pointed towards the black eye. 

“Really?” Ino gasped, trying to feign surprise. “I thought you got that from walking into a door.” 

“No,” He was blushing and pouting. Naruto’s pouts were something that Ino was coming to enjoy. Not because they were cute or anything, it was just because it meant that Naruto was in some form of misery. Just because they were friends didn’t mean she couldn’t delight in his suffering. “I told Sakura about her forehead and she punched me.” 

She honestly saw that one coming from a mile away. “And the flower? Did she take the flower?”

Naruto blinked, his pout turning into a simple frown as he twisted his face like a puppy dog. “Well yea, but she still punched me!” 

“And you still like her?” 

The blush was back. “Well yea, but I think I just made things worse by telling her about her forehead.” 

“Okay Naruto, I’m going to need you to tell me exactly what happened.” For science, and gossip. Mostly gossip. “So from the top, what did you do?”

“Well, I found Sakura alone as she was walking home,” Naruto scratched the side of his face, he walked to the storefront and grabbed the first flower he could find, a Blue Salvia, a flower that represented healing, wisdom and a long life. Naruto could use at least two of the three right about now. "She was annoyed when she saw me and said 'What do you want Naruto?"

That was expected from Sakura.

"Then I held out the flower to her and she took it from me and I said. 'you're forehead is so big and beautiful it makes me want to kiss it.'" Naruto held the flower out to Ino imitating his previous actions.

With the role of her eyes, Ino took the flower and tried to fight a smile. A second flower from a boy, a second flower for Naruto. There was no hidden meaning behind this one, it was all just an act. "And then what?"

Naruto flapped his arms. "Well she stood there for a second, looking at me and the flowers, then she shouted that I was an Idiot punched me in the face and ran away. And now she probably hates me!"

Wow, that actually worked better than expected. "Naruto, Naruto, Naruto." Ino tsked as she returned the flower to him. "She doesn't hate you now, Sakura is just... well she's not very good at handling her emotions, she gets too flustered and then expresses herself in weird ways."

A bit like Naruto actually.

"She was actually probably really happy that somebody said those things to her, but she was probably also really mad that it was you that said those things." If Naruto gave her a flower - on purpose and one that actually meant that he liked her - and said that she was the most beautiful girl in the world, she'd probably punch him too.

"So she hit me because she's happy?" Naruto frowned placing the flower back in more or less the same spot.

"She hit you because she doesn't like that you made her happy."

"Huh?" Again with the confused puppy look, at least this time he was clean so he actually looked cute. And with the black eye, it was like he had a spot on his face.

Ino sighed and pulled out a Magazine she had read weeks ago. "Here, this article describes the types of girls. Sakura's reaction and personality make me think that she's going to become a tsundere to you."

"What's a tsundere?"

"A tsundere is a girl or a boy too I guess, is a person that hates that they like you, and hates that they can't stop liking you. Or they hate they like that they like you or something. It's very weird. Basically, because Sakura already hated you for being annoying. And then you did this really sweet thing to her she's going to be hating that she now likes you." Ino pushed the magazine towards Naruto, "Really try reading the girl magazines sometimes, guys complain all the time that girls are too hard to figure out. But we write everything down."

He took the magazine. "So, Sakura likes me now?"

Ino shrugged and mimicked Naruto's flap. "Maybe, I'm not her so I really can't speak for her, but I think she's on the way to liking you."

"So what do I do now?" Naruto asked rolling the magazine up and placing it in his jacket. "Should I give her another flower?"

"You do nothing."

"Nothing?"

"Nothing."

Naruto frowned. "Why? won't that make her not like me?"

"If you try to push her too hard you'll remind her of why she doesn't like you, so instead you should do nothing and let her figure things out if she still hates you try again some other time, but just give Sakura a little time okay?" Ino paused and tapped her chin. "It's a bit like Sasuke, he doesn't do anything special for us girls but we all like him because we decided to, not because he tried to make us like him."

There was more to it than that, like Sasuke is cool, cute, awesome, and mysterious. But that was beside the point.

"But, I don't want to be Sasuke." He was pouting again.

Ino smiled and gave Naruto a soft shove. "Don't worry Naruto, you'll never be Sasuke, even if you stay away from Sakura for a while."

Wait, wait, wait. Ino smiled, maybe this could be used on Sasuke. If she used her new friendship with Naruto to make Sasuke jealous by ignoring him. Oh, the possibilities were endless! "Instead why don't you hang out with me at school? I'll even eat lunch with you." 

"Really? You will?" The joy in his voice was almost enough to make her feel bad. Almost, but not enough.

"Well yea, what else are friends for?" Ino smiled, "Now let's get to work, my dad comes home tonight and we should make sure the shop isn't a mess."

XXXX 

Inoichi, yawned as he walked through the doors of his shop. He was ready for a good long stay at home far away from any missions that dealt with the Land of Snow for a good long while. Snow and winter just didn't sit that well with him, it made him lethargic.

He was looking forward to a nice relaxing evening with a home cooked meal from his wife with his lovely daughter and… son? Wait, he had a son? No, that couldn’t be. If he didn’t have a son, then who on earth was this short blonde punk with blue eyes watering his plants? And why did he have a black eye? 

“Oh right,” Inoichi blinked. His wife said something about hiring a troublemaker to help around the shop. “You’re Naruto aren’t you?”

The boy froze and stared up at him wide-eyed, like a deer ready to be spooked. “Yes, Mr. Ino’s dad.” 

“It’s just Inoichi,” He patted the air trying to get the boy to be less uptight and formal. “Have you seen my.” 

“Daddy!” His lovely little daughter came whirling out from the back room and slammed into him full speed. It nearly knocked the air out of him. “Thank god you’re home!” 

“What’s the rush?” Inoichi smiled ruffling his daughter's hair ever so slightly. Just enough to make her annoyed at him later. 

Ino frowned and turned away from him, huffing just like her mother did. “You’ve been gone for so long! I thought you were never coming back.” 

“Oh, I know this game,” He pulled out a small packet of seeds he had gathered. “These, come from the Land of snow, I don’t know what they’ll grow into, but why don’t you add them to your collection.” 

It was a hobby Tsubaki had passed down onto Ino, collecting rare flowers from across the world, and trying to figure out how to grow them in Konoha. It was an odd hobby but one that eventually led to this wonderful store. 

“Thanks, daddy!” Ino smiled at him as she twirled the seeds in her hand, “I can’t wait to plant them in my room.”

She spun towards the boy. “Come on Naruto, let's fill a pot and find a place for it in my room.” 

Inoichi felt his mouth drop as Ino grabbed the boy by his wrist and began to drag him away and towards her room. His daughter had befriended that trouble making blond and was taking him into her room? His precious baby girl was too young for this! She wasn’t allowed to like boys! No matter how much she said she was in love with that Uchiha. 

“Keep the door open Ino!”


	6. Sunflowers

“You know,” Naruto grumbled, as he shifted the half-dozen or so bags he was lugging around. “When you said you wanted to hang out on our day off this was not what I had in mind.”

Ino spun around and smiled at him. It was her ‘oh look at me I’m a perfect angle and I can’t possibly be doing anything bad’ smile. He hated that smile. “Well, what did you expect? I said we were going to go shopping!” 

“So what you’re saying is that the next time you ask me if I want to go shopping with you, then I should just stay home?” Seriously, how could she even afford all this! And why were these clothes so heavy! “And why do you need so many clothes?”

“What?” She gasped acting like his words hurt her. “You mean you’re not enjoying spending time with me, Ino, your coworker, and friend? Why I’m offended.” 

“You’re just using me to carry stuff.”

“Guilty as charged, but hey I said we can get ramen after all this. So just hold your horses.” Free ramen was always good, even if he had enough money to buy his own ramen. “As for why I need so many clothes, don’t you think it’s fun watching me try on so many cute outfits?” 

“No,” He really didn’t see the point Ino looked fine in whatever she was wearing. She frowned, looking sad again, girls were so confusing! One second they were happy and then the next they were all sad and depressed and stuff. Or in Sakura’s case really angry. “And don’t you have enough clothes? I’m already carrying more than I own.” 

“Wait,” Ino came to a dead stop. “Do you mean to tell me that you don’t even own three outfits?”

“No?” Was that weird? He only needed like three shirts, some pants, and then his jacket. Still, to Ino it looked like he had committed some kind of crime against nature. 

“I can’t believe it.” Ino’s mouth fell open and she slapped her cheek in what could only be described as pure terror. “I should have noticed that you always wear the same three shirts to work all the time and that you never change jackets or pants.”

She grabbed his arm and began to pull him towards a new store. “We’re going to fix this right now Naruto, we’re not stopping until you get at least one new outfit, a new look might even help you with Sakura!”

“But shopping is boring!” And expensive! He’d much just rather wait for his birthday when the Old Man would buy him new clothes. “Can’t we just go get ramen now?” 

She pulled on his arm again as they rounded a corner to a come face to face with a large, but rather generic looking store that had numerous outfits for shinobi on display. “No way! Come on this is the last stop! We should be able to find you something decent to wear!” 

Naruto groaned as Ino dragged him into the shop. His feet hurt, and his arms were tired, it felt like Ino was going to shop until she dropped. Then he’d have to carry her too. 

They found the section for teenagers and Ino went to work. 

“Oh here, this would match your eyes,” it was a blue shirt. “This one would go well with your skin and hair,” an orange and yellow jacket, that was softer than his normal jacket, sleeveless too. “And these will tie the whole thing together,” darker orange pants. 

“Uhh, okay?” Naruto looked at the clothing she had piled on top of him. “It’s all orange and blue though?” 

“They’re your favorite color right?” Ino gave him a soft smile that made the middle of his back tingle in the way that it did when he saw Sakura smile. She was actually super cute when she was smiling. 

“Yea, they are!” 

“Awesome, now, go change, I want to see how you look!” Ino shoved him in the vague direction of the changing rooms. 

The pants were a bit too small, but the shirt and jacket both fit good, nice and roomy how he liked them, the jacket even had a hood, which meant no more struggling to find an umbrella that wasn’t broken! 

He examined himself in the mirror, it didn’t look bad, and he still looked like himself. “Ino, I’m dressed.” 

“About time, now come out here.” Man, she was bossy, it was like she couldn’t go three minutes without telling him what to do. 

He stepped out holding his arms out wide, she smiled again. “Well?”

“Hmmm.” She placed her finger on her lip as she walked around him, her eyes flowing up and down as she examined him. It felt like he was taking a test and Ino was more than willing to fail him. “The look suits you, how does it fit?”

“The pants are a bit tight.”

“That’s easy to fix, go put your regular clothes on, I’ll get you a larger size.”

“Do I have to get these? They feel kind of expensive.” 

Ino snorted, a soft blush on her face that hadn’t actually been there. “Don’t worry about it Naruto, I’ll cover you this time but you’ll owe me.”

“Owe you what?” 

“Don’t know yet, it won’t cost you money though.” 

Why did it feel like he was going to regret this deal? Still, the outfit made Ino smile, and if it made Ino smile it might make Sakura smile. “Sure Okay.” 

“Great, now I’m going to go try on an outfit, wait for me at the girls changing room.” 

Naruto just hoped it wouldn’t be like the last store where she spent thirty minutes trying on outfits, only for her to not buy anything. It was so boring!

Still, Naruto did as he was told, and waited on the little chairs near the woman’s changing room holding the bags like a diligent watchdog. He was getting hungry. Really hungry. “Hey, Ino are you almost done in there?”

“Just about!” her voice was sing-song and oh so very happy, it sounded like a warm bowl of ramen smelled. Delightful and inviting. And a bit of happiness. 

The curtain flew open and Ino presented herself like an unwrapped Christmas present. She was nearly naked as she stood there in a yellow polka dot bikini. Her stomach was exposed, her hips were on display, It was like he was peeping in the woman’s bath using Sexy Jutsu again!

Only this time he wasn’t getting in trouble for it! 

“Well,” Ino’s smile drew his eyes to her face, a faint blush was slowly spreading on her cheeks. “What do you think?” 

She stuck her tongue out to the side and winked.

Naruto could only just stare, his mind was empty. “Uhhhh.”

“I’ll take that as a good sign.” Ino dropped the curtain returning to the dressing room. 

XXXX

Ino poked at the bowl of ramen in front of her, It wasn’t bad. But she could taste the calories. Every single bite of the salty soup was bound to end up on her hips, stomach, or thighs! If it went to her chest then she’d probably eat as much as Naruto. 

He was on his second bowl and showed no sign of stopping. It was amazing really. “Honestly Naruto where do you put it all?”

“Put what?” Like the uncivilized idiot, he was Naruto responded with his mouth overflowing with noodles as he was mid-slurp. It was probably her fault she should have asked the question in between bites…. Or bowls it was the same thing really. 

“All that ramen you eat! Like seriously it’s like your stomach leads to another dimension, oh and I’m only paying for two bowls you got that?” Ino grumbled and took another bite of noodles into her mouth. The calories tasted like guilt. Delicious, delicious guilt. 

Next time they were going some other place! Like that BBQ place Choji likes. 

“Oh, I don’t know I just eat it.” Stupid Metabolism must be why Naruto’s so hyper he burns up all his energy doing stupid stuff and saying stupid things. Like a true gentleman, he went right back to slurping. 

“Sakura better watch out, looks like she’s competing with ramen for your heart,” Ino mumbled as she took another bite of the ramen. Why was this stuff so good? Seriously, it was growing on her with each bite. 

“What’d you say?” Naruto finished his slurp and finally stopped eating. 

Ino swallowed her bite, nearly choking on it. So that’s why her mother said not to talk with her mouth full. How did Naruto do it? “Oh I asked if you were nervous about the Final exam coming up, you failed that last few right?” 

“Oh,” Naruto’s shoulders slumped and he stirred his half-empty bowl of ramen. He looked pathetic. Then he perked right back up. “Don’t worry about me Ino I’m sure I’ll do great this time!” 

“You still can’t do the clone Jutsu can you?” 

Silence, followed by the guiltiest sounding slurp she ever heard. “I’ll get it down by next time I promise.” 

“You better, or else you’ll be stuck working at our store forever!” 

“That doesn’t sound so bad, I kind of like working at the flower shop.”   
“You would,” Ino snorted, taking in a bite of the garnish in her ramen. “But what about your dream of Becoming Hokage?” 

Naruto sat up straight and with a chopstick in both hands he stood on the stool and proclaimed. “Then I'll become the Flower Hokage and then the whole village will acknowledge me and my awesome flowers!”

Ino sat in stunned silence. Then burst out in a full body laugh that almost sent her tumbling to the ground. “You Dork!” 

Naruto plopped down and joined her. “I’ll be the Hokage that smells like sunflowers! Believe it!” 

Then it happened. The most embarrassing thing that her body could ever do. She oinked. Then again, and again. It was an absolutely horrible sound that made her laughter come to a dead stop. 

Naruto’s had settled down to a giggle as he smiled at her. “I didn’t know you oinked when laughed.”

“If you ever tell anybody I did that~”

“I thought I heard a pig around here.” Ino spun around to see her former friend and longtime rival in Sasuke’s love. Sakura Haruno. The worse possible person to hear her oink. 

This was all Naruto’s fault. 

“What do you want Billboard brow?” Ino growled she was going to fight fire with fire if she had to.

“Oh, I was just walking by when I heard a pig in a ramen stall and.” Sakura turned and looked at Naruto who had remained silent. Sakura stood there silent for a moment, whatever insult she had in that massive head of hers was dead on arrival. Sakura blushed, and then her mouth snapped shut, and then opened again. “Are you two on a date?”

“No,” Ino stood. “And what if we were it’s none of your business.” 

“Well it's not, but I’ve been looking for Naruto?” She was acting like that bashful six year old she first met that was unsure of everything. Holy crap is this because of Naruto’s compliment and flowers? 

“You are?” Ino and Naruto asked at the same time.

“I am?” Sakura asked, then she snapped out of it. And walked past Ino like she wasn’t even there. “I mean yes, I am. I’m here for you Naruto.”

“Oh, well what can I do for you Sakura?” Naruto stood and asked, his ramen bowl left half empty on the table. 

Sakura closed her eyes, her hands fidgeting in front of her as she took a deep breath. “Naruto, I’ve decided to give you a chance, so if the offer is still good, I’d like to go on a date with you.” 

Ino couldn’t so much as breath. It worked. It actually worked. Never in a million years would she ever think that Sakura would go out on a date with Naruto. This was a good thing right? Right? 

Why was she hoping that Naruto would reject Sakura here and now, for him to hear him say no? Was it because it would be worth it to see Sakura’s face if naruto of all people rejected her? Or was there another reason?

Please say no, please say no, please please please say no.

Naruto had a gigawatt smile on his face that could rival the sun in its intensity. “Really Sakura? You meant it? You’ll go on a date with me?” 

Sakura nodded. 

“Yahoo!” Naruto cheered pulling Sakura into a hug. “You have no idea how happy I am.” 

And he had no idea how Jealous Ino was at that moment.


	7. Hydrangea

Ino thundered past the storefront, kicked open the door to her room and flung herself onto her bed. With her head buried into her pillow, she screamed. She screamed long, hard, and loud, the only thing that stopped eardrums within a two hundred foot radius from bursting was her valiant pillow. 

She felt like shit. 

Her limbs felt like they were on pins and needles while her stomach was an empty pit of despair, on the plus side her diet was going fantastic because she had absolutely no appetite, the last thing she actually ate that didn’t make her want to vomit was the ramen she had with Naruto. 

Speaking of the blond traitorous bastard, he and Billboard Brow were official, or to be more specific, official, but not let anybody know because Sakura’s parents would freak out. That was a blatant lie, Sakura’s parents probably didn’t care that she was dating Naruto, hell her dad was just a big of a prankster as Naruto. 

No the real reason why Sakura didn’t want anybody to know that she was dating Naruto was simple. Sasuke. Sakura didn’t want to let her precious Uchiha know that she was dating Naruto. Sasuke probably didn’t even care. And the only reason why Ino hadn’t told everybody, was because Naruto - the idiot - had asked her not to. 

That was all fine and dandy. The real problem was…. The real problem was. She didn’t know! Another scream erupted from her mouth and she slammed the pillow into her face kicking madly on the bed. 

“Alright honey,” Her mother said walking into the room. A moment later her mother sat on the bed and she felt a soft hand rub circles on her back. “That’s two screams into the pillow, what’s wrong?” 

“Nothing,” Ino mumbled into the pillow. Great now her mother was concerned. 

“Ino,” her mother’s voice soft but firm. 

With a groan, Ino kicked her feet on the bed twice before she sighed. “Why don’t you ask Naruto!?”

“Oh, and why would Naruto know why you’re screaming into your pillow?”

Ino closed her eyes and tried to wish away her mother. When that didn’t work she sighed. “Cause it’s his fault.” 

“Ahh progress.” Her mother patted her on the back like she was a babe to be burped. “Now, what exactly did Naruto do?” 

“I don’t know.” She did; wait, no she didn’t, she had no idea why she was feeling like this. She had no idea why the thought of Naruto and Sakura dating was making her want to vomit. Why it made her want to curl up into a ball and die. “Sakura's just using him for compliments and money, and it’s driving me crazy that Naruto’s so happy and stupid that he can’t realize that she’s using him like the bitch that she is and I should be happy that they’re dating because then Sakura would be my friend again.” 

“If my pillow screaming is correct,” Tsubaki was probably smiling right now, laughing at her misery. “Naruto and Sakura are dating, and that’s what’s making you so upset that you’re screaming into your pillow?” 

Ino bit her lip, trying to ignore the fact that her pillow was now damp. Was she crying? Why was she crying? Still, she nodded to her mother’s question. “I guess.” 

“Hmm,” Her mother was hmming that wasn’t good it was never good when her mother was hmming it usually meant that her mother was going to be horribly wrong about something even if it was the truth. “I think that you’re upset because Naruto is dating Sakura,”

Didn’t they just cover that?

“And you have a crush on Naruto.” 

“What!?” Ino sat up so fast she was standing on her bed staring down at her mother. “How can I possibly like Naruto.” 

She huffed, blowing a strand of hair out of her face, as her fingers touched her chest as though the very idea offended her. “He’s loud, annoying, stupid, I mean he likes Sakura, that’s a special kind of stupid, he’s a horrible ninja, he has no manners, I don’t think he showers every day, I’m fairly certain he does laundry once a month despite the fact that he only owns like five outfits, he’s cute, kind, sweet, and actually a super nice guy, much nicer than someone like Sakura deserves. And.” 

“And he should be dating you instead?” Her mother finished for her. 

“Exactly, I would be perfect for Naruto, at least I would….” Oh…. Oh. “Treat…. Him…. right.” 

The truth came crashing down onto her with enough force to send her to her knees. She sat there in silence staring at the bow of her mother’s apron. She liked Naruto. Oh god, she liked Naruto, this…. This was horrible! 

“How can I like him, mom!” Ino finally looked into her mother’s eyes. “I can’t like Naruto, I shouldn’t like Naruto!” 

“Why not? He’s a sweet boy, there’s nothing wrong with-”

“No, you don’t understand!” Ino shouted, her eyes felt wet. “Naruto was supposed to get Sakura to stop liking Sasuke and then we could be friends, and now I have a crush on him and every time I see either one of them I want to run away cry and puke and I can’t sleep! I’m a horrible person.”

“Oh, honey,” Tsubaki pulled her daughter into a hug, placing Ino’s head on her shoulder. “It’s okay dear.”

“No it’s not,” She gasped, grasping great handfuls of her mother’s shirt. “It’s all my fault. I used him to get Sakura to stop liking Sasuke! I’m a bitch.” 

Her mother began to rock her back and forth, the motion only made her stomach feel worse. “Do you know what my favorite flower is?” 

“If you say me, you’re cheesier than dad.” 

“Now, now, your father’s cheesiness is what made me fall for him, but that’s beside the point, my favorite flower is the Hydrangea, do you know why?” 

Ino groaned, why was she still crying? How long was she going to feel like the worse person in the world? How long was she going to feel like garbage? “Cause dad gave it to you on the first date?” 

“No, that was a rose.” Her mother sighed into the blissful memories. That Ino would never have in a billion years. “The Hydrangea has many meanings. Gratitude, abundance, prosperity, grace, and beauty, maybe even a bit of vanity and narcissism. But the real meaning behind the flower is two-fold, honest heartfelt emotions of any kind and developing a deeper understanding between two people.”

“What does that have to do with anything?” This had life lesson written all over it. 

“I just think that it’s a fantastic representation of you and Naruto. You two are both honest to the point of bluntness, especially with each other. It was quite nice watching your bond with Naruto form and then grow, he’s your best friend now isn’t he?”

“No,” Her mom was stupid, this was stupid, everything was stupid, especially Sakura and Naruto. Especially Naruto.... She was stupid. “Maybe… yes.” 

“It’s okay to feel like Sakura is trying to steal him away, it’s okay that you like the same boy as Sakura. Again.” Did her mom really need to stress the 'again'? “And I know how hard it is to watch someone you care for be with someone else.”

“Try the worse thing ever!” Ino pulled away from her mom, she wasn’t sure if she’d run out of tears, or if her mother had actually helped. She doubted it was the latter. "I just want to curl up in my bed and die" 

Ino flung herself back onto her bed and smothered herself with a pillow, she let out a good long scream that could probably be weaponized if she ever wanted to commit a war crime or two. 

Tsubaki just pattered her on the stomach, and sighed, allowing Ino to work out her problems with a few long screams. "Just do me a favor dear, and try not to lose any friendships over this, it might be hard, but the best things in life aren't easy." 

Ino remained silent until her mother stood. This wasn't helping, nothing would help, she just wanted to lay in bed and be miserable. And maybe stuff her face with chocolate. 

"Oh, you and Naruto have the next few days off for the upcoming test, try not to let this distract you okay? You have such potential." With that her mother left the room, shutting the door without so much as a click. 

Oh right, the stupid genin test, there was no way that she wasn't going to pass, even if she somehow failed the exams, she had good enough scores to at least pass, she might not end up on a good team, or anywhere near worthy of getting Sasuke's interest. Sasuke, the thought of him once made her heart flutter. But even with Sakura out of the way, he probably wouldn't even look her way. 

Maybe she'd end up on a team with Naruto? and then... then on a long mission, she could convince him that he didn't like Sakura... and no... that wouldn't work. Naruto was too nice, he'd probably stay with a girl even if he didn't love them just to make them happy. It was pathetic really how self-sacrificing he was. 

"Besides," Ino flopped to her side staring at the flower plants in her window, the one that she and Naruto had planted was nothing more than a single green leaf trying to wiggle its way up to the sun. "I think I've manipulated him enough." 

XXXX

The weight of her headband felt heavy in her hands. But it wasn't what weighed her down. No, it was the same thing that had been weighing on her for a while. Naruto. He hadn't passed. 

He looked so sad as he slowly rocked back and forth on the swing. But, what could she say? What could she do? she couldn't even make herself feel better, how could she make Naruto feel better? 

And it wasn't like they'd spoke recently. It felt like she hardly knew him anymore. 

What could she say? 'hey? wanna come celebrate with my family that I passed a test you failed?' That would just make things worse, which was all she could do. Just show up and make things worse and worse and worse. 

Still, she found herself standing in front of him holding her headband tightly. If she could give it to him she would. It hurt seeing him like this, it hurt as bad as seeing him happy with Sakura. 

"Naruto, are you going to be okay?" She asked, she knew the answer, he wanted to be the Hokage. And now he couldn't even become a genin. He had failed for the final time and deemed unfit to become a ninja.

He looked up at her and forced a smile. She never wanted to see him smile like that. It was a horrible thing like darkness had swallowed up the sun casting the world into despair. "Don't worry about me Ino, you should go celebrate with your family."

"But,"

"I'll be fine," his smile was more genuine this time, but still sad, he even gave a soft laugh that might have been a sob. "Look at it this way, I'll be able to spend more time at the shop." 

"I...." What else could she say? Was there anything else for her to even say at this point? "Just... Well... If you ever need anything Naruto, don't be afraid to ask me, you're like my best friend." 

Her heart quickened, racing faster and faster with each word she spoke, it felt so good to say that, like a stone had been removed from the mountain she carried on her back. And then there was his smile. Bright and cheerful shining with the radiance of the sun after an eclipse. 

"And don't give up," She held out her fist to him. "You're still going to become the Hokage right?" 

He stared at her fist in amazement. Then bumped her knuckles. They held that connection for a moment before he nodded. "Yea, I won't give up, not yet. Believe it!"

**Author's Note:**

> Hi there! New fic by me! I had more but lost about 4k words to the fire (Program didn't save when the power cut out) 
> 
> In unrelated news, I have a Patreon, Yojimbra's Fluff Fics. Feel free to support me. Or not. Up to you its your money.


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